Links:

'Reclaim Time to Read' 2022 reading challenge:  https://www.helenbeedham.com/2022-reading-challenge

Helen's business book: The Future of Time: how 're-working' time can help you boost productivity, diversity and wellbeing

Book into my new programme Time for the things that matter. Programme starts 21st June 2022.

Transcript:

Hello! I’m recording this on Friday 27^th May and this week’s episode is a little different to usual. Since it’s school half term this week and a double bank holiday, I’m saving my next podcast guest, until next week – I’ll reveal their identity at the end of this episode. This week I’m picking out a few nuggets from the series so far to hopefully inspire your work and your thinking. I’m also doing a deeper dive into my 2022 Reading Challenge, #ReclaimTimeToRead, where as you know if you’ve listened to the podcast before, I’m aiming to read 50 books in 52 weeks this year. I’m allowing myself 2 weeks off for good behaviour, or to catch up! A number of people have mentioned they’re enjoying following my reading challenge and have been browsing the list of books so far that are on my website and are keen to hear a bit more book chat. So peeps, this is for you!

What are you up to this week? Firing up your own Jubilee celebrations? Escaping abroad for school half term? Meeting up with family and friends? There’s a lot of preparation going on for the Jubilee celebrations; I live in a small rural village that has a great sense of community, and we’ve been getting regular mailshots for a while now about the wide range of activities and celebrations planned. It reminds me of the 75^th anniversary of VE day that took place during the first lockdown in May. We had a socially distanced celebration in our little lane where everyone hung out bunting and sat with afternoon tea and drinks at the end of their driveways, it was boiling hot, the music was wafting through the trees and it felt SO good to be chatting with friendly neighbours again. My husband had to do a work call after being persuaded to try a neighbour’s potent-looking red, white and blue cocktail – I’m quite sure it was NOT his finest hour of work!  

One thing the Jubilee aniversary and that VE day celebration remind me about is the joy and memories that can come with celebrating milestones, at home and at work.  I’ve managed to cram a few milestones into this year so far, more than I usually would, with my business book launch, my 50^th birthday and our long-awaited family reunion in Australia with my grown up stepchildren. So I’m going with the theme of celebrating milestones for this week’s podcast. I’d love to hear what milestones you’ve recently been marking, in your work lives and at home. The best ones get a shout out on next week’s podcast! So drop me an email at hello@helenbeedham.com or a tweet at @helenbeedham or find me on Instagram and Linked In at @helenjbeedham.

My first guest on this series was Ama Ocansey, UK Head of Diversity and Inclusion for BNP Paribas and formerly a capital markets lawyer there. We talked about when she switched tracks from being a lawyer to leading their D&I agenda and how this career milestone came about.

Ama: The actual getting the role was definitely through sponsorship. Somebody very senior. I got the pat on the back or the pat on the shoulder, as they say. So that was instrumental, but I'd done the work before then. As a lawyer and as a black female lawyer in a corporate space and a finance space I was often 'othered' because I was often the only woman in the room, but always the only black woman in the room. So I was very aware of being a minority. So I was very engaged in initiatives at work in terms of diversity, in terms of inclusion, in terms of just giving people a voice. And actually that's one of the reasons why I became a lawyer, because of my childhood, I felt that somebody had to speak for people who couldn't speak for themselves. And law seemed the right avenue for me to be able to do so. So I'd always done that and through that sort of advocacy, through that sort of speaking up, through that engagement, the senior leader said "I think you'd be very good at this". And it struck me that actually, yeah, I've got the lived experience and I've got the passion and I hope I have the understanding. And so it seemed a natural progression for me.

Helen: That's really interesting to hear how the act of putting your hand up and getting involved and speaking out and getting engaged on certain topics in the workplace - that raised your profile and helped people to notice you more and see the potential and also the commitment and the ambition you had as well. So it's a great reminder to us that if we want to succeed or climb up the career ladder, we have to be thinking about, okay, what more could I be doing or doing differently that might bring me into contact with different people who might be able to help me in my career or who might notice what I'm doing and what I bring to the table

Ama: I couldn't agree more. I did it inadvertently because I felt that I needed to do it, it was important to me. But looking back, I realize how much exposure it gave because I was active in the networks and because I put my hand up for things and because I spoke about things, it did mean that people did see me and people remembered me.

And like I say being a black female in a very white corporate space, you're often remembered! So it was important for me that I was remembered for the right reasons, but I hadn't strategically worked out that that would lead to something else. So I, yeah, I completely agree with you. It's difficult because you're busy doing your day job and sometimes juggling the family as well. But I do think that it is important to be noticed, to engage and not because you're doing it because you're thinking about the next thing, but find something that works for you, find something that you're interested in. Somebody was saying, what are you known for? What do you stand for? And I remember thinking, gosh, that's quite daunting. And then I realized, well, actually, if you do believe in something and if you're engaged in something, that is who you are. So I would really encourage people to do that, especially women because I think men do that naturally anyway; they're very good at selling themselves, their stories, their skills and women tend not to want to do that, it's often seen as bragging. And there is a fine line. But I do think you really do have to make sure that you are seen because if you aren't seen then people aren't going to talk about you when you're not in the room and often you want to be talked about for the right reasons.

As Ama says, she hadn’t consciously planned or worked towards this milestone, it took a nudge from a senior colleague to open her eyes to the idea of taking on this new role. But then she realised that it was a way of recognising and building on all the work and effort she’d been putting into creating inclusive conversations whilst in her lawyer role. And her advice to find something that you’re interested in, that you believe in, and get noticed for that, is a great way to open up future possibilities.

My second guest, communication expert, coach and author Janie van Hool, shared a wonderful reflection about reaching a milestone in her career and life where she finally learned to trust her expertise and experience and to start banishing that imposter syndrome that can breathe down all our necks.

Helen: Yes, absolutely. And so thinking back about the way your career's evolved and the different clients you've worked with and the different organizations and situations you've been in, is there anything in particular that at some time or another, you have found quite stretching or difficult that's led you perhaps to develop some new skills or tools in your toolbox, or simply a way of dealing with maybe uncomfortable or challenging situations?

Janie: I mean, as I said to someone recently, now I'm in my mid fifties, as my body goes south, my confidence goes north and that's really lovely. So I've been in many situations where I have really felt like an imposter. I'm a classical theatre actress trying to work with groups of leaders and inspire them to behave differently. It feels like the gap is so enormous. But the beautiful thing of just continually putting myself in that situation over the years, both in the UK and internationally, is that I just have really begun to trust myself. And that feels wonderful actually. One of the things I learned from being a Samaritan is that it's not my job to fix. It's not my job to find the answer to everything. It's my job to create conditions where people can explore their own motivations or find their own answers. So actually the big thing that I've learned, even though I've been really sometimes thinking, well, I remember walking up the steps at the foreign office once is ago, and it's a beautiful grand amazing building. And I was walking up the steps and I was thinking 'what on earth? I mean, how did I get here? What am I doing here?' But actually the great privilege is to realize that everybody's the same really. The Italians say, at the end of the day, all the chess pieces go back in the same box, and I think that really, what I have had the privilege of uncovering is that even the most senior leaders are filled with self-doubt or have good days and bad days, or don't have the answers, or, as I share at the end of my book, some of them are in really dark and difficult places. And actually that has given me great courage to be bold and brave with people because, it's like what I was saying about Robert Downey Jr, you know; truthfully underneath, we all just want to find the connections. So it's given me a lot of courage to trust myself in those environments. I don't have to be perfect.

Isn’t that great? What a wonderful milestone to reach and enjoy – the ability to feel confident, with humility and without bragging, about the knowledge and skills we have worked hard to gain and in our own unique way of working and being with other people. Do listen to the start of Janie’s episode to hear her brilliant anecdote about meeting Robert Downey Junior. You’ll never look at a pink feather the same way again.

In episode 3 I spoke with Leonard Ng about his career at the international law firm Sidley Austin. He’s a Partner there and a member of their Executive Committee and I heard how he has accumulated a whole number of milestones during his career thanks to his ethos of saying yes to every opportunity that arises. It’s such a positive, open-minded way of approaching work and life. Here’s Leonard:

Leonard: Well, as you said I've been doing this for almost 25 years now, in fact. And I joined Sidley in 1997. I think the way I think about my career has been always to just accept opportunities as they come along, accepting that there's no one perfect thing. And sometimes, the thing that you ended up getting really good at and developing into, it might be very far away from the thing that you thought you wanted in the first place.

 I grew up in Singapore, I did a law degree in Singapore and at first I wanted to be an academic. And so I applied for an LLM programme at Yale, and the University of Chicago. I didn't get into Yale, but Chicago did give me an offer so I took that. But of course having graduated, I thought, well, now I've got a massive student loan on my head, I can't really be an academic. So I had developed an interest in telecoms law so I applied to Sidley, which had a strong telecoms practice, especially long history with clients for AT&T. And, and so that sounded like a good idea to me. But I came to London and the telecoms practice was relatively small.

And so I decided, well, they need me in structured finance so I'll do structured finance instead. And after a few years it was, well, actually we think we need people to focus on regulation. So I said, that's fine, I'll do it. And so along the way, it's always been just saying yes to things funnily enough, and I think when you do that, you open your eyes to new things that you weren't really thinking of at the time. Whereas if you have a very fixed view or tunnel vision of what you think you want, you actually don't end up exploring things that might be very good for you. Now, of course, it doesn't always work that way. Not every 'yes' to something results in something positive, but I'd say in my experience, at least almost always there is something positive I can take away from saying yes to something.

And the joke within Sidley is that I show up at the opening of an envelope in the sense, I just say yes to everything, I participate in everything and I always find something that's good from that thing. Even if it didn't look apparent at the time, it might be five years later, someone I met in an event whom I said yes to now becomes a client or asks me for help. And that's I think the way; well, that's how I've done it anyway, it doesn't mean it's the right way.

And Leonard went on to tell me about how they are bringing all their European lawyers together for a strategy session in London, during which some of them are putting on a show for their colleagues with Leonard as show organiser. Why are they doing this? Because as Leonard says, the camaraderie and sense of togetherness that they gain from celebrating a milestone in this fun way is priceless.

Then last week I spoke with international HR Director, Non Executive Director and coach Patricia Galloway about early career milestones that felt pretty challenging and scary at the time, but looking back, we saw how they gave us confidence and set us up to take on bigger jobs after that.

Patricia: Well, I think the thing that generally tends to surprise people after having spent 20 years in HR and banking is, and you did touch upon it is, that I started my career in industrial HR, in an engineering company and the Midlands so completely different. That was a standalone role and dealing with issues such as union recognition, changing shift patterns, and setting up an employee council. I was fresh from my Master's at the time, so very, very green. It was a baptism of fire for me but I loved the challenge and I learned a tremendous amount.

Helen: That's so interesting. It's such a different world, as you say, from the kind of professional corporate office- based world. And I know from my own past experiences, many years ago in consulting with manufacturing and engineering firms, it's a very different environment. And I'm sure as you say, it was a bit of a baptism by fire because there can be all sorts of people activity that HR needs to wade in and deal with at quite short notice, I imagine.

Patricia: Yes. A lot.

Helen: And was that useful then later on that ' on the floor' experience, so to speak ?

Patricia: Yes. I think the fact that I'd had such a steep learning curve in such a very different industry so early on in my career, I think it gave me the confidence actually that if I can deal with that, I can pretty much deal with anything. And because I was dealing with some quite serious issues, so union recognition with the GMB union at the time, I mean, that was quite a heavy topic with some very, very senior people from the GMB to be dealing with so early on in my career. But I did lots of research, I did a lot of prep and it was fine. And I realized it gave me that solid confidence in myself that actually I can do these difficult things.

Helen: That's such a good reflection to take forwards. And I empathize, I started my career in retail on the graduate management training scheme at Harrods and one of my first rotations, I was doing customer service for the wine and spirits department at Christmas. A lot of wine bottles arrived late or a bit broken and people got very upset and actually one of the best early groundings I could have had career-wise was how to deal with really upset customers day after day after day. It really builds your resilience and your relationship skills. So I totally agree all those early, and really quite scary sometimes, formative experiences really help build that confidence early on.

What’s been a really formative milestone in your career? What event or turning point do you still remember clearly and why? I was on a work call recently with a friend who is contemplating the next chapter of their career, and I mentioned to them the value of charting our career experiences on a page of A4, where you draw a line across the middle of the page and starting from the left, you draw out the highs and lows of your career in an unbroken line looping above and below the central line. Then you add labels and notes about the different experiences, why you remember each milestone and what made it a positive, or negative experience. I did this when I started to think about working for myself, and it was hugely helpful. So if you’re contemplating a new career milestone or turning point, you might find that a useful thing to do.

For the second half of series 2, in addition to next week’s guest I’ll be talking with Andy Wallace, founding partner of Leathwaite, the executive search and leadership talent specialists and to Finance Director Jennifer Halliday who is also on the advisory board for Manchester Business School and chairs the NW Productivity Forum which is part of the UK’s new Productivity Institute. I’m looking forward to uncovering some more surprising milestones and career stories with them.

Right, onto books and my 2022 Reading Challenge. #ReclaimTimeToRead where each week I’m alternating a business book/non-fiction with a novel. This is my way of encouraging myself to step away from my laptop and the chores and carve out more time in my day for mental rest and refreshment. And I’m really enjoying it! I’ve already read 20 books, which beats my total for the whole of last year, but more importantly, I’ve discovered some fantastic writers and really broadened out my usual selection of reading material. I’m not going to go through all 20 here, don’t worry! The full list so far is on my website at helenbeedham.com/2022readingchallenge. I’m just going to pick out 3 business books and 3 novels and share a few quotes that I loved, to whet your appetite. Someone asked me this week if I’m organising a book club where we can chat in more detail together about each read; it is something I’ve thought about doing before so if you’re interested, please get in touch and let me know if you’d be up for joining it and what would work well for you.

First up for business books is Range: how generalists triumph in a specialised world, by David Epstein, which I read in week 3. This is all about how, rather than becoming a deep expert in a narrow field, pursuing a broad range of interests helps us to think, learn, innovate and problem-solve better. He says that ‘everyone needs habits of mind that allow them to dance across disciplines’ – an image I love – and that ‘for learning that is both durable ie it sticks, and flexible ie it can be appplied broadly, fast and easy is precisely the problem’. Big mistakes can give us our best learning opportunities, and as the years go by, it’s perfectly ok – better than ok – to accept that our work preferences and our life preferences do not stay the same – because we don’t stay the same.

My second pick for business books is the classic that is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen R Covey. I’d somehow never read it, although I was familiar with some of the concepts in it, and when I read it in week 9 I loved it. His book is probably best known for its ‘circles of Concern and influence’, which can help us to identify what is in our direct control, what we can indirectly control and what we can’t control at all and what we can do in ease case. But the book is much more than a set of models, it’s about ways to live a rich and fulfilling life. He talks about ‘the emotional bank account’ as a way of building up trust in a relationship, saying: ‘people don’t care how much you now until they know how much you care’. It’s so true. He goes onto describe the 5 levels of listening, ending with empathic listening, and how we shape our our future by the way we react to the situations and conversations we find ourselves in: ‘in choosing our response to circumstances, we powerfully affect our circumstance’. It’s deep, thought-provoking stuff.

My third and final pick for business books is The Authority Gap by Mary Ann Sieghart, which I read earlier this month. This really got me steaming, to the amusement of my husband who manfully listened to quote after quote I read out about how women are perceived by both sexes as less authoritative than men, and why.  It plays out across many industries and fields, including media, publishing and education. Did you know that women read books written by men but many fewer men are prepared to read books written by women? Women are 65% more likely to read a non fiction book by the opposite sex than men are. Mary Ann clearly flags up how women are biased against female authority too, thanks to centennia of social influences shaping our conscious and unconscious thought. In the final chapter she shares some really practical lists for everyday things we can do to close the authority gap, as colleagues, parents, community members and more.

With the novels I’ve read such a wide variety that picking out 3 highlights has been quite thought-provoking. In week 4 I read Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie. It was published in 2013 and later released as a film starring Thandie Newton, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Anika Noni Rose, nominated for various awards. Set in Nigeria, the novel is a rich and rewarding account of five adults living through the Nigerian civil war of the late 1960’s, when the independent state of Biafra was declared, fought over and ultimately abolished. The characters are compelling and I learnt a lot about this brutal civil war which unfolds steadily in the background as the relationships between the main characters ebb and flow. I found it a hard book to put down.

Then in week 6 I read author Claire Fuller’s third book, Unsettled Ground, which was published last year to great acclaim, winning the Costa Novel Award and being shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Two fifty-year old siblings live a meagre, vulnerable existence on the edge of society, overlooked by many, and they gradually uncover some long-hidden family truths. Following their battles to put food on the table and find a place to call home was an emotional, sobering read, but it is also an uplifting book about resilience, friendship and humanity.

My final pick of the novels so far is the electrifyingly original The Anomaly by Herve le Tellier, translated from the French. It won the coveted Prix Goncourt, iss described as genre-defying and mind-bending and it’s a highly original thriller that I raced through, desperate to find out how it unfolded and marvelling at its brilliant construction. As the back cover explains, a commercial flight flies into a massive storm and inexplicably duplicates into two identical planes with two identical sets of passengers. One plane lands soon after the storm, its duplicate lands over 2 months later. The novel tracks the bemused authorities trying to comprehend and deal with what has happened, and the passengers’ different experiences after landing. I absolutely loved this novel for the sharp characterisation, the pacy plot and the cleverness of the concept. If you haven’t read it, go buy it now!

Hopefully one of more of these recommendations has whetted your appetite or given you inspiration for a present to buy for a friend or family member. I always love to hear recommendations from others and I’ve not yet nailed down the rest of my 2022 reading list so please do get in touch with your suggestions.

Right, that’s it for this week’s episode. Next week my guest will be Ben Higgins, who is Managing Director and UK Head of Human Resources at Société Générale, one of Europe’s leading financial services groups, and he’s also Chair of the City HR Network. We chat about how he worked his way up the HR career ladder, how SG is experimenting with new ways of working and his secret to managing his time successfully. Do join us.